The present invention relates to a device for protecting an operating means which can be connected to or disconnected from an electrical network at various switching points.
The present invention proceeds from the state of the art relating to a protective device such as is described, for instance, in Federal Republic of Germany patent document A-3 132 730. This known protective device serves for monitoring and guiding an operating means, for example a bus bar or the like, which is deployed in an electric-energy supply network. The known device has various data measurement/acquisition units which record and digitize current, voltage and switch-position signals provided at outputs of the operating means, and further includes a data processing unit.
The data processing unit contains microprocessor systems which are arranged in two hierarchical levels. One microprocessor system, which is arranged in a subordinate hierarchical level, processes and transforms, in real-time, the measurement signals which have been digitized in the measurement/acquisition unit, while a microprocessor system arranged in a higher hierarchical level computes protection algorithms therefrom, by reference to a reduced quantity of data. This second microprocessor system also determines whether errors are present in the electrical network.